I recently launched a Wordpress blog (the link is in my sig) and I am in the process of adding functionality by way of plug-ins. For those of familiar with WP blogs, what plug-ins do you like and why? So far I have the all-in-one SEO and will add one to integrate social media links (e.g. Facebook, twitter). I will maintain it as blog reflecting community news, information, and local real estate. Any input as far as plugins or ways to improve will be most appreciated. And if you care to leave a comment on a post, it will be a dofollow link.

I think it's a good looking website. However you may want to look into a better way to convert leads from it. Most Realtors websites are just there. They don't capture new clients. I actually just wrote a blog post about this. It's in my sig. 30kin3months.

I am wondering if you have thought about adding a modified version of eshop or ecommerce which are shopping carts for WordPress? The modifications of course would be to show off homes instead of products and modify the shopping cart so as to disable the buy now feature.

Q,,,

I like Flickr Photo albums http://www.tantannoodles.com/toolkit/photo-album/ if you use flickr you can incorporate into your sidebar and posts

Sexy Bookmarks for social bookmarking http://shareaholic.com/sexybookmarks

Mortgage Loan Calculator http://www.mlcalc.com/free-widgets/mortgage-loan-calculator/wordpress.htm

Thanks for the great suggestions, mcbr, qi, and danny. I will certainly look into integrating a few of these.

Hey Maui,

I use a ton of plug-ins with my WP blog but one that I'd definitely recommend would be "ScribeSEO" to optimize your blogs posts for the search engines.

It's not one of the freebies but it's worth it.

A good freebie would be "Yet Another Related Posts Plugin".

Josh Sanders
Founder, Shiloh Street University

This is a great list of "essential" wordpress plugins. Some of the better ones on the list include Author Image, WP-Email, WP-Greetbox and others..

Let me know if you find anything useful!

Too many plugins can drastically slow down your site...the fewer the better...

check out

Google XML Sitemaps
Google Analytics
WP Cache

You actually have a pretty good functioning site, great job. How is the traffic and the average time on the site for the reader?

Ajaych, time on site is around 3 minutes and bounce rate is in the high 60 percent (I attribute that to the post being readable from the homepage, so readers don't have to go in deeper). I'm actually thinking of getting a different theme, something that allows more functionality and is more visually pleasing. As far as traffic, it has been increasing since its inception, but I expect big changes soon. My static site launched a month before my blog and at the 6 month mark (this past week), it had a HUGE leap in the SERPS (all the way around, in every keyword/key phrase that I track).

Is there a theme or custom designer that you would recommend?

I'd be happy to give it a shot for you for free.

Here are a few I've done:

http://ellistratedwebsites.com/blogging/
http://expertrealtorweb.com/blog/

I could design it for you based on your description, and I could even send you a picture what it looks like before you use it. I can then just send you the file and you can install it yourself. I am excellent at Photoshop so I can create the banners for you too.

Let me know.

God Bless!
Mark Ellis

I like the Templatic Theme ... it's clean. I installed it for my budd stricklandteam.com - it's a wordpress theme

The types of plug ins that you choose are very important. It is important to know what you need and what the goal for your blog is. I saw that you mentioned All in one SEO.

A few SEO plug ins I recommend: SEO Search Terms Tagging 2
SEO Smart Links
SEO Pressor - Great for Content optimization

I also recommend getting plug ins for RSS feeds and RSS Aggregators : RSS Bomber and RSSBot

It is important to have a good linking structure as well . . . if you are this advanced let me know I have some great plugin suggestions for that as well

Currently I run over 40 plugins on my blog and I got all of my information from autoblog experts in the IM niche

I am considering using wordpress for my next real estate site. I've seen an IDX plugin but was not entirely impressed. Does anyone have any ideas about a good IDX tool to offer MLS searches on a wordpress site?

I'm about to implement one on mine. I would use idxpress but they do not support my MLS so I think I'll be going with IDXbroker.